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﻿ . The Romanesque Bible in English .

We will have Volume I (Genesis - Kings II) of a four volume edition of the Romanesque Bible in English available, God willing, one day. This is a Crusader Era Bible from the age of Richard the Lionhearted, which is between the Second and Third Crusades. The opened book will be approximately 19" tall by 27" wide. Each page will be approximately 13 1/2” wide by 19” tall. Jerome’s prologues will lead to monumental historiated book opening letters illuminated by hand in 23.5 k gold to open each book. A period binding will be in leather and gold stamped.

It is the year 1170, the Crusades are taking place. One of the Western super powers of the period was the Normans with kingdoms in Normandy, England, Sicily, the County of Edessa, and the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. The Norman crusaders viewed the Byzantine Greeks as treacherous and effeminate, because they did not honor their words or treaties, and because they had no problem compromising with the Muslims, who had taken vast stretches of lands from Christendom and had rendered pilgrimages to the Holy Land difficult due to raiding caravans. The Norman crusaders took back Jerusalem, which the Muslims took in 637; and Sicily, which the Muslims invaded in 828. Among the other Western responses were the Knights Templars and Knights Hospitallers. This is our time frame for our Reproduction Bible - the Romanesque Bible in English.

The Winchester Bible, which our Romanesque Bible in English is modeled on, is a window into that period. This is what the Bible looked like in that time frame with the stylistic climax for what came before: Celtic and Anglo Saxon. Elements of the Gothic style are present, but not fully.

The primary sources we are using to produce our reproduction Romanesque Bible in English are the Winchester, Lambeth-Maidstone, Bury, Dover, St. Gumbert, and Capucin Bibles. Whenever possible, we draw directly from the Winchester Bible or develop composites or hybrid historiated letters based on the other Bibles in order to maintain consistency in style and period. Our aim is to a produce a tour de force of monumental and ornamental historiated book openings as entry points for each book of the Bible, which is what the scribes and artists did over 800 years ago.

Our graphic artist Neil Bromley first develops sketches of opening historiated letters for each book of the Bible. The letter H that opens Exodus, for example, is directly modeled on the Winchester Bible. It is historiated, which means there is a story embedded within the letter through the characters. In the upper panel, an Egyptian task master abuses an enslaved Hebrew worker. In the lower panel, Moses bludgeons the Egyptian task master.

This pictorial narrative serves as a visual entry point into the book. Of course, Exodus goes on to illustrate that taking justice into your hands can get you killed, which is why Moses ran for his life. Asking God to intervene and make things right, however, is what Exodus is all about. Among all men opportunity, ability, and action can lead to greatness. But, the kind of faith that Moses had changes history, which is why the book of Exodus has been read and studied for close to 3,500 years.

The aesthetic style is the pinnacle of Anglo-Norman art. What is unique to the Romanesque illustrations are damp fold in the clothing draping the figures. What is specifically unique to the Winchester Bible are facial expressions as well as the energetic movement in the figures as seen here as originally envisioned by the great unknown artist, who is known as the Master of the Leaping Figures.

​You can experience the impact from the Romanesque period by helping us to underwrite our efforts by ordering an 11”x 17” (27.94 cm by 43.18 cm) page on board featuring the opening to the book of Exodus richly illuminated in 23.5 k gold leaf. As seen in the double matt, this is a limited and numbered edition of just 500. Your purchase of this museum quality item for $100 ensures that our work moves along quickly and on schedule.

. Origin of the Great Bibles .

The origin of Great Bibles is connected with the church reforms initiated by Pope Gregory VII (1073 - 1085) to foster moral and spiritual renewal among the clergy and ecclesiastical authority during the period of the Investiture Controversy. The perennial problem facing the church of all ages had come to a head, which was secular influence and control over the church itself. The giving of a large Great Bible by a layperson like a king to a church or an abbey was a symbolic act that affirmed the legitimacy of the authority of the church. The first donation of a Great Bible on record appears to have been the one presented by King Henry IV to the Benedictine monks at the Hirsau Abbey in 1075. King Henry IV went on to become Emperor Henry IV of the Holy Roman Empire. See this Great Bible.

. History of the Winchester Bible .​(The Model for the Romanesque Bible in English)

Between 800 and approximately 1200, a fairly standardized script known as Romanesque dominated manuscripts in Western Europe over three periods: Carolingian (Franks), Ottonian (Saxons), and Anglo-Norman.

The Anglo-Norman Romanesque period takes place roughly between 1066 and 1200. Our focus is based on the Bibles produced in England and across the English Channel in France. The Normans, who were the descendants of the Vikings, invaded England and set up kingdoms in the following regions: Normandy, England, Sicily, County of Odessa, and the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem.

Anglo-Norman culture was imposed from the top down. They spoke French and Latin. They were well educated. They built in stone. They were big thinkers. They were ambitious. They had financial resources. They built on the ideas of Charlemagne. These Normans embraced warrior culture. Anglo Saxon and the vestiges of Celtic themes are throughout the manuscripts of the period.

The key figures connected with the Winchester Bible were:

Henry of Blois, born 1129 - died 1171, patron of the Winchester Bible (grandson of William the Conqueror and brother of King Stephen of England)

Henry II (born 5 March 1133 – died 6 July 1189), king of England and father of Richard the Lionhearted of the Third Crusade, and responsible for the murder of Thomas Beckett

St. Hugh born 1135 - died 1200

These key figures were adolescents and teenagers during the Second Crusade (1147–1149) and mature adults during the Third Crusade (1189–1192). When the Norman Crusaders encountered the Byzantine Greeks on the way to liberate Jerusalem of the Muslims, who had taken the Holy Land from Christendom, they viewed the Greeks as treacherous and effeminate. Read about the Normans’ role in the Crusades in God’s Battalions by Rodney Stark.

Bifolium opened to Jeremiah in the Winchester Bible c. 1170Photograph by Peter Hebert

. Notes on the Winchester Bible .

The actual Winchester Bible is currently in four volumes. Each page measures 15 3/4” wide by 23” tall. The bifolio, or opened book, measures 31 1/2” wide by 23” tall. It is a huge Bible developed by big thinkers, ambitious men, and conquerors, who were products of their age.

The Winchester Bible was a work in ongoing progress and remodeling of style due to the patron. Henry of Blois wanted that Bible updated to outdo the Bibles in the other parishes. If you can imagine Hampton Court Palace, it is a building that was torn down and remodeled in some places, in other places it is original, and so forth. The Winchester Bible is something like that. A work in progress, a work in change, and a work never finished. The best of the best is in the Winchester Bible.

The unknown several artists of the Winchester Bible are commonly referred to as the Master of the Genesis Initial, the Master of the Leaping Figures, the Master of the Morgan Leaf, the Master of the Apocrypha Drawings, the Amalekite Master, and the Master of the Gothic Majesty. It is believed that two of these artists may be known by name. Jeffrey the gold worker and Roger the painter. Evidence of at least some these court artists being world travelers is seen in murals in the Chapter House in Sigena, Spain and murals in the Cathedral of Monreale on the island of Sicily.

The estimated cost in current dollars to produce the Winchester Bible is $8 million or £11.2 million, and would have required a royal treasury to undertake. That Bible’s patron Henry of Blois was one of the wealthiest men of Europe and did not see cost as an obstacle. His drive was no different from that of King Solomon, the builder of the Temple in Jerusalem or Justinian I, the patron of the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople in 537. That drive was to bring wealth, great skill and talent, and art into the service and glory of God.

Like many monumental and ornamental Bibles from the period, work on the Winchester Bible came to a halt when its patron died. And, it is tragically mutilated with cuttings of book opening letters taken from across a good portion of the manuscript. Fortunately, one of the missing book opening letters - Obadiah’s opening - was identified, secured, and then stitched back into the Bible.

The great Romanesque Bibles such as the Winchester Bible were created prior to standardized chapter divisions. Archbishop Langton in Paris gave us the modern chapter divisions of the Bible circa 1205. Langston was the Archbishop of Canterbury and also took part in the events that lead to the Magna Carta. In a modern Bible - Jewish, Catholic, and Protestant - Genesis has 50 chapters, Exodus has 40 chapters. In the Winchester Bible, Genesis has 82 chapters, Exodus has 137 chapters. And so forth throughout.

There are delightful inconsistencies within the manuscript. For example, for Genesis through Joshua, in the table of contents the Roman numerals of chapters come before the chapter summaries. From Judges through to Kings IIII, the Roman numerals of chapters come after the chapter summaries in the table of contents. This may be a small detail, but it is there and I find it fascinating.

Ruth's header is Ruth the Moabitess and Joshua's header is Joshua the son of Nun.

The book order from Ezra is followed by Chronicles I and Chronicles II is based on a chronological book ordering, which makes sense. The books are not ordered that way by the time of Gutenberg onward.

Chronicles I and II have no chapter breaks at all, just a river of text. In some places in other books, chapter breaks are in the middle of a column, not just to the far left of a column. Odd. How could a scribe hearing the text read aloud do that? Why? Was the reader sloppy in forgetting to announce to the scribe - chapter break is here?

Nehemiah follows Ezra in modern Bibles, but Nehemiah is not in the Winchester Bible and neither are the books Ezra III and Ezra IIII, both of which appear in the Gutenberg Bible.

In some books, like Job, the chapters are broken out but not numbered - perhaps unfinished. Ditto with Ecclesiastes. This is the case in the Psalms as well, which I think is the pinnacle of aesthetics in this Bible. Psalms has no header ... same as in Gutenberg's Bible. In Job, there is a gloss in blue to set off Job's rebuttal to his friends - a rubrication color rarely used and sometimes seen in Gothic manuscripts.

A few books highlight chapters within using illuminated and richly decorated letters as in Daniel when the chapter on Balthazar opens. The same appears to have happened in Isaiah, but the letter was cut out.

Housed in Winchester Cathedral in Winchester, England, the four volumed Bible is being slowly and carefully conserved. See VIDEO.

The Battle of Hastings of 1066 in the Norman Invasion of England under William the ConquerorBayeux Tapestry. Credit: Robert Harding Picture Library/Alamy